Rustic & Relaxed Farm Wedding

Summer dreaming today courtesy of Beth and Tom and their delightful farm wedding reception held on the 8th July 2017 at Stepney Hill Farm in North Yorkshire. Relaxed and rustic was the vision and these two achieved it perfectly. The sun was shining, which enabled everyone to venture outdoors to enjoy the warmth. It also made for some seriously beautiful portraits of the couple by Photography34, which really blew me away and I am so thankful to be sharing them with you all.

There were so many lovely touches, from a pork pie wedding cake to a super cool banner top table backdrop and a barn festooned with fairy lights and drapes. It really was a sight to behold.

Everyone looked so gorgeous too, especially bride and groom Beth and Tom. Beth wore a strapless lace gown by Enzoani, which caught the evening light so perfectly. With Tom and the gents in blue suits from Next teamed with floral ties. Not forgetting the bridesmaids in ASOS frocks in the prettiest shade of sage green. Enjoy all the loveliness folks.

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THE PROPOSAL

Tom took me to Bridestones, Dalby Forest, one of our most favourite places in the world.

Under the guise of a nice walk with my favourite snacks (Glaves’ Pork Pies! More to follow later…), we got settled on one of the sandstone rocks and all of a sudden Tom was on bended knee with a ring – safe to say I was gob-smacked and completely over the moon!

THE VISION

We didn’t want anything too formal and wanted to be able to relax on our big day. It was important to us that our guests felt the same as we just wanted them to have a great time celebrating with us.

THE PLANNING PROCESS

We got engaged in July 2015 and we’d intended to get married 1 year later in 2016 but then we decided to buy a house! We tried to renovate the house and organise the wedding at the same time but it was far too much to handle and we didn’t want either the house or wedding to suffer so we postponed the wedding until 2017. It was a great decision, it meant we could completely focus on the wedding without getting too stressed out :)

THE VENUE

Our ceremony took place at St. John the Baptist Church which is a beautiful, old church just at the bottom of our street. We chose Stepney Hill Farm for our reception venue because it’s somewhere we go regularly. It’s lovely knowing that we can go there for a cup of tea and slice of cake whenever we like and reminisce about our beautiful day. It also wasn’t too far away from the church and the scenery is gorgeous! Surrounded by rolling hills and sheep(!) and on a clear day, like our wedding day, you can even see the sea!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES

I got a beautiful Enzoani gown from Diana at The Little Pearl Bridal Boutique. I’d highly recommend Diana and her beautiful boutique. I actually chose the first dress I tried on, which I didn’t expect to happen! I got my gold and nude shoes from LK Bennett and my veil was from Rainbow Club, which Kirsty from Hair by Kirsty cleverly braided into by hair.

Finding the dress was an absolute dream with Diana at Little Pearl. She made me feel at ease straight away, didn’t rush me and gave me some really great advice. I’d highly recommend Diana and her beautiful boutique.

GROOM’S ATTIRE

We got our suits from Next. We wanted the groomsmen to keep their suits as a wedding gift, but it was important we didn’t break the bank at the same time! The suits were great quality and a lovely deep royal blue colour.

THE READINGS & MUSIC

Our church reading was read by my now sister-in-law, Georgia. I know she isn’t a fan of public speaking, but she did a great job which we’re really thankful for 😊. She read ‘That still and settled place by Edward Monkton’ which was short and sweet but absolutely lovely.

I’m a big fan of Beyonce so we left the church to an acoustic version of ‘Halo’.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS

My four closest and bestest friends were my bridesmaids (Sally, Steph, Annie and Jess) and they did a great job. We got their dresses from ASOS and I let them choose their own shoes and hairstyles, so they were comfortable (and to avoid arguments!). We also had two flower girls, Daisy and Isla, daughters of Annie and Jess. Sadly, Isla came down with a nasty bout of chicken pox the day before the wedding and had to miss out. Daisy definitely had a dance for her though, she was on the dance floor all day!

THE FLOWERS

Our flowers were provided by Jo at Hearts and Flowers. Jo was wonderful and very capable, so I knew we were in good hands. My father-in-law painstakingly made all of the centrepiece logs with stamps on either end and Jo did us a bespoke workshop for us to make them into flower arrangements. We had afternoon tea with some bubbly. It was great fun and I loved seeing the centrepieces in the day knowing they were our handy work.

THE CAKE

After Tom’s proposal, we knew right away that the most fitting cake would be a pork pie cake! Glaves Butchers in Brompton made us a three-tier cake, which we decorate with Baby’s Breath. It was delicious.

My mother-in-law’s friend and neighbour, Helen, also made us a three-tier naked cake. Helen is quite the baker and did us three different flavours, it went down a treat!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER

Our photographer was Tony at Photography34. I’d seen Tony’s images before on social media and really loved the natural style of his work. I knew it would fit right in with our vision of the day. A lot of guests commented on how they didn’t even see him on the day, which meant he captured some amazing moments that we’ll treasure forever.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR

My mother-in-law, Cheryle, was an absolute star with helping us decorate the venue and the church. She was so organised and helped us fine tune all the finishing touches such as putting up photographs of Tom and I when we were little. We also had a helping hand from Natalie at Violet Lux who provided the celling swags, a kiddie’s corner (including a tipi!) and lots of lovely bits and pieces.

THE HONEYMOON

We knew we wanted to go somewhere special for our honeymoon and we chose the Seychelles. We spent two weeks on white beaches, eating amazing food and having a well-deserved rest, it was absolutely gorgeous and we hope to go back for our 10-year anniversary.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

There are lots of memorable moments but one that stands out is when Tom’s Best Man, Liam, revealed a hideous (but hilarious) cardboard cut-out of him during his Best Man speech. Everyone erupted with laughter! My bridesmaid’s also did a rendition of Fleetwood Mac for me, I quickly joined in of course!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES

Seriously, don’t sweat the small stuff! When people tell you “it won’t matter on the day”, it really won’t! You’ll be too busy having the best time, just enjoy every moment because the day itself goes by in a flash.